Wooden Gothic Church of All Saints

The wooden church in Tvrdošín is a real jewel of Slovak architecture. This Roman Catholic church dates back to the second half of the fifteenth century and is the oldest preserved building in the town of Tvrdošín. The church stands in the middle of a quiet cemetery, surrounded by a stone enclosure with a baroque gate. Upon entering its interior, you will be greeted by the unique smell of beeswax, which is used to treat the precious wooden furnishings. The greatest pride of the church is the massive Baroque altar from the end of the seventeenth century with the image of All Saints. Originally there was a lower Gothic altar, of which only the wing with paintings of St Peter and St John the Baptist has survived. A sad chapter is the loss of the original painting of the Lamentation of Christ, which was taken to Budapest in 1919. The interior is completed by magnificent vaulted paintings of starry skies and angels, paintings of the apostles and a late Renaissance pulpit from 1654. Particularly interesting is the painting of St. George on horseback fighting with a kite, created in tempera on wood around 1653. In 1993 the church underwent a careful reconstruction, for which it received the prestigious Europa Nostra award. Since 2008, it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with seven other wooden churches.